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CorpusCoursePresentation2 2014

This document discusses different types of corpus linguistics tools. It notes that tools can be online or offline, designed for a specific corpus or any text, and may require corpus preparation or be ready to use. Tools provide different functions like concordancing, word lists, statistics, and collocation. They also handle text formats and annotation differently. The document demonstrates example tools and functions including concordances, word lists, collocates, and visualization. It recommends trying the AntConc tool and registers attendees for free use of BYU corpora.

Uploaded by

Pandeng Li
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© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
40 views

CorpusCoursePresentation2 2014

This document discusses different types of corpus linguistics tools. It notes that tools can be online or offline, designed for a specific corpus or any text, and may require corpus preparation or be ready to use. Tools provide different functions like concordancing, word lists, statistics, and collocation. They also handle text formats and annotation differently. The document demonstrates example tools and functions including concordances, word lists, collocates, and visualization. It recommends trying the AntConc tool and registers attendees for free use of BYU corpora.

Uploaded by

Pandeng Li
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Corpus Linguistics (2):

The Tools of the


Corpus Tradesession 2
Linguistics:

http://tinyurl.com/669o4zt

[email protected]
[email protected]
Today’s session

• An introduction to some features of


tools
• Demo of different (kinds of) tools
• Hands-on practice with one tool

AIM: Help you know what to look for in a


tool for your work (and what options
there are)
There are different

TYPES OF TOOLS
Different kinds of tools

• Online / offline
• For one particular corpus / for any corpus or
text
• Use straight away / need to prepare corpus
• 'Free' / licence conditions and costs
Different kinds of tools

• Online / offline
• For one particular corpus / for any
corpus or text
• Use straight away / need to prepare
corpus
• 'Free' / licence conditions and costs
Tools may

• have different functions:


concordance, wordlist, statistics,
collocation, keywords…
• handle annotation:
interpret tags, ignore tags, treat tags as
text
• take different text formats:
.txt, .xml, .html
Different tools have different functions.

TYPICAL FUNCTIONS
Concordance

• Search word + context


• Can be displayed as KWIC
• Can usually be sorted
• Used to see patterns of use
KWIC Concordance
Wordlist

List all words in the corpus


• alphabetically
• by frequency

Used as starting point for further functions


• keywords
• lexical density/readability calculations
Sampler AntConc wordlist
Collocations

Co-occurrence patterns
borrow money
borrow books
borrow a car
May I borrow

(more in Session 3)
Collocates:
adjectives immediately preceding BUSINESS

Corpus of Contemporary
American English
http://www.americancorpus.org/
Visualization

Graphs
Word clouds
Distribution displays
Etc.
Example: BNCweb
borrow
Example: Voyant Tools
http://voyant-tools.org
‘borrow’
Compare your intuition to what you find in the corpus

What is borrowed and by whom?


What words do you expect to find together with borrow?
Can these words be grouped in some way, for example
based on their word class, function, or meaning?
Where would you expect these words (e.g. before or
after borrow? Immediately adjacent or not?)
Who do you think uses the work borrow? In what
context or type of language would you find borrow?
Are there any words that are NOT used with borrow?
AntConc

Download AntConc for free from:


http://www.antlab.sci.waseda.ac.jp/antconc_index.html
(or just search for Antconc)

Use your own texts and corpora. Find some examples


at:
http://www.ota.ox.ac.uk/
Tip of the week

Register to use
the BYU corpora
for free.

http://corpus.byu.edu
Next week (Session 3)
Collocation

Corpus linguists claim to have identified an important


principle is responsible for the creation of much of the
meaning of texts – collocation (co-occurrences). What is
it, and are the claims true?

Optional reading:
* Xiao, Richard, and Tony McEnery (2006). "Collocation,
Semantic Prosody, and near Synonymy: A Cross-
Linguistic Perspective " Applied Linguistics 27(1): 103-
129.
http://applij.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/27/1/103
Corpus Linguistics (2):
The Tools of the
Corpus Tradesession 2
Linguistics:

http://tinyurl.com/669o4zt

[email protected]
[email protected]

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